Abolitionism and the abolitionists in Serbia

Abolitionism is the movement against capital punishment, while abolitionists are people who oppose capital punishment and demand its abolition. The first modern abolitionist was an Italian, Cesare Beccaria (1738–1784), who presented his ideas in an influential essay On Crimes and Punishments (1764). In the 19th century, many scholars wrote against capital punishment, while philanthropic societies called for its abolition throughout Europe and America. Today, numerous international NGOs (such as Amnesty International and the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty) and intergovernmental organizations (such as the United Nations and the Council of Europe) work towards the abolition of capital punishment in those countries whose laws still permit it.

The first ideas about the abolition of capital punishment were brought to Serbia by young people who had studied abroad, most often in German-speaking countries. Upon returning to Serbia, some of them worked in government administration and justice or entered politics, which gave them an opportunity to influence penal policies in the country. Others were able to do the same as professors and scholars. All of them contributed to a reduction of the use of the death penalty in the 19th century, but were unable to effect its abolition. Later on, in the 20th century, there appeared the first citizens' associations and initiatives to abolish the death penalty. Below are some of the more important dates, individuals and organizations who strove to abolish capital punishment in Serbia during the last two centuries.

19th century

Konstantin Konstantinovič Rodofinikin

1808 Serbia received the first advice to abolish capital punishment right at the beginning of its existence as an independent territory, when it was liberated from the Turks by the Serbian rebels and held from 1804 to 1813. The advice came from Russia, which at the time applied capital punishment much more sparingly than the western European countries and sent offenders to exile in Siberia instead. Russia, whose army was stationed on the Danube close to the Turkish borders, supported the Serbian rebels, at times by direct military actions against the Turks. The Russian agent who was in touch with the Serbian rebels as a liaison officer, Konstantin Konstantinovič Rodofinikin (1760–1838), wrote to his superiors in 1808: „The death penalty, which they here use in cold blood, should be abolished and replaced by punishments which are used for offenders in Russia“. Since the rebels' government in Serbia was in a permanent state of war with Turkey and since the country had no written laws (and only a few literate people), this sort of advice was unlikely to be followed and there are no indications that it was ever seriously considered by the Serbs.

Sima Milutinović Sarajlija

1826 A poet, Sima Milutinović Sarajlija (1791–1847), wrote a letter to Prince Miloš Obrenović in 1826, advising him to abolish capital punishment, as it would be in his own interest. Capital punishment should be replaced by imprisonment, which Milutinović envisaged in a rather peculiar way: each offender sentenced to imprisonment should be lowered into a deep hole in the earth and kept there for the duration of the sentence (including for life). In such absolute isolation, the prisoners would re-examine their lives of crime and repent, praying to God incessantly for the good health of the Prince and his family. It so happened that the Prince never received Milutinović's letter and nothing came of this strange project.

1829 A German traveller Otto Pirch (1799–1832) visited the inhabited island of Poreč on the Danube (flooded in 1971 to build the Djerdap hydroelectric power plant), where a prison was being built at the time. He was told that „the Prince intended to abolish capital punishment and replace it by imprisonment on the island of Poreč“. This information was incorrect: Prince Miloš Obrenović never intended anything of the sort – on the contrary, he was a staunch supporter of executions. Otto Pirch may have been misinformed by his guides on purpose. They were aware of progressive moves to abolish capital punishment in many European countries of the time and may have wished to present Serbia in a more favourable light.

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1839 Jovan Filipović (1819–1876) published the first edition of his Philosophy of Law. In it he did not discuss the death penalty as such, but his subsequent writings showed him to be a committed abolitionist. As President of Appellate Court and member of a commission to draft a Penal Code, Filipović proposed total abolition of the death penalty in 1858. He argued that capital punishment cannot reform the criminal and was not necessary to protect society either, as the offender would be under the full control of the authorities at the time of sentencing. In addition to these general arguments, he claimed the death penalty to be unconstitutional, as the Serbian constitution at the time prohibited the imposition of corporal punishment on priests and civil servants. Since the death penalty is but a form of corporal punishment, Filipović argued (contrary to the well established case law) that priests and civil servants could not be sentenced to death either. And since all citizens had to be equal when it concerned their very lives, no one could be sentenced to death. Serbia could not follow those European countries which applied capital punishment, because its Constitution was different. On the contrary – wrote Filipović – „as in this respect we have a Constitution which is different from that of other European countries, we must lead the way for Europe in this respect“. In the drafting commission, Filipović's view received no support and the majority voted to keep the death penalty in the new Code.

Đorđe Cenić

1858 Thanks to the efforts of young civil servants – most of them lawyers trained abroad – public exposure of the bodies of executed offenders was discontinued on 27 March 1858. The following members of that group deserve a special mention: Đorđe Cenić (1825–1903), Dimitrije Matić (1821–1884), Nikola Krstić (1829–1902), Stojan Veljković (1830–1925), Rajko Lešjanin (1826–1872) and Dimitrije Crnobarac (1818–1872).

Dimitrije Matić

1859 The same group of young civil servants, many of whom also served as high judges and ministers of justice in different periods, contributed to the abolition, on 12 May 1859, of the lethal gauntlet, which was in use until then as an aggravated form of execution. In this, they followed prevailing public opinion, which was by then strongly opposed to this punishment, so that many citizens refused to participate in its execution, although the law required them to do so.

1864 The first abolitionist pamphlet in the Serbian language was printed in Belgrade. Entitled „The Penalty of Death“, it was written by Sima V. Simić († 1897), a law student. It was not an original work, as it was adapted from a German source, and it gave a brief presentation of the abolitionist arguments which were common in the scholarly literature of the period. Simić particularly admired the socialist ideas of Robert Owen, insisting that crime was but a consequence of bad social institutions, and of poverty and unemployment in particular. It could be eradicated only through the education of the lower classes, not by severe punishments. As Simić wrote: „We should strive for modern human societies which still apply this barbaric punishment to hear the cries and sufferings of mankind and to abolish the death penalty“.

1867/8 Milan Damjanović (1838–1891), a long time warden of the Belgrade penitentiary and a prison reformer, translated the key works of the European abolitionist literature: Beccaria's classic essay On Crimes and Punishments (originally published in 1764), but also the more recent books by German abolitionists Berner (1861) and Mittermaier (1862). Damjanović's translations were printed in the official paper Srbske novine and as separate booklets as well, so they became easily available to students, lawyers and the general public. In addition to the translated works, the first original works in Serbian started to appear, such as an essay by a twenty year old student Milivoj Toponarski (1846–1885), published in 1867.

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1881 In January 1881, two motions to abolish the death penalty were presented in the Serbian Parliament. They were submitted by deputies from the Radical Party and their real aim was to effect the abolition of capital punishment for political crimes. At the time, their party was in conflict with the King Milan Obrenović and they feared that the King could accuse them of treason and manage to have them sentenced to death. The first motion was made by four deputies: priest Marinko Ivković (1848–1883), Živan Milenović, Stojan Stanković and Aleksa Stanojević; the other by their colleague Veljko Jakovljević. Both motions were denied. Only two years later, an armed revolt, known as the Timok Rebellion, broke out in Eastern Serbia. Some 800 participants were court martialled, including many leaders of the Radical Party. The court martial handed down 94 death sentences. Three of those who had presented the 1881 motion for abolition were among those sentenced to death. One (Ivković) was executed, while the other two (Milenović and Spasojević) were reprieved.

1882 The Socialists in Serbia embark on a systematic campaign against the death penalty, in keeping with the policies of the Socialist International. Their paper, Borba, published articles calling for abolition.

Giga Geršić

1888 The Committee for the Drafting of a new Serbian Constitution held a debate on the abolition of capital punishment, mostly for political and property crimes. The death penalty was then opposed by Gligorije – Giga Geršić (1842–1918), Dimitrije Katić (1845–1899), Sima Nestorović (1835–1921) and Milan Mostić, all from the Radical Party. Another opponent was Jovan Avakumović, a liberal lawyer and politician who served as Minister of Justice on several occasions. The new Constitution retained the death penalty, although it somewhat restricted its use for political crimes.

Dragiša Lapčević

1898 A group of students with socialist leanings translated and published in Belgrade the so-called Erfurt Programme of the German Social Democratic Party. A member of this group was Dragiša Lapčević (1867–1939), subsequently a founder and leader of the Serbian Social Democratic Party.

20th century

Jovan Avakumović

1902 Capital punishment for theft and other property crimes was abolished by law. This amendment to the Penal Code was necessary because the 1901 Constitution had enumerated all capital crimes, excluding property crimes from that list. For many decades a main proponent of this reform has been Jovan Avakumović (1841–1928).

1906 A lively debate on capital punishment in the Parliament was occasioned by the commutation of a death sentence for a notorious murderer. The then Minister of Justice, Milenko Vesnić (1862–1921), was a principled opponent of the death penalty, calling for its abolition on many occasions. One of these was in the 1906 parliamentary debate as well, but he failed to win over the majority of deputies. Besides Vesnić, many others spoke against the death penalty, including: Ilija Kolović (1852–1915), Dragoljub Joksimović (* 1872) and Dragiša Lapčević. In response to the parliamentary debate, the general public also engaged in discussions about the death penalty, and the issue was kept alive by the media.

1910 A Draft Penal Code for Serbia was published. The initial draft was prepared by a subcommittee of only four members, two of whom were opposed to the death penalty as a matter of principle, one wanted to restrict its use and only one supported it in principle. The two firm opponents were ,Marko Đuričić (1861–1926) and Milutin Miljković, while Božidar Marković (1874–1946) was inclined to keep it in the Code, albeit only temporarily. And so it seemed that Serbia was on its way to abolition. In the plenary session (over 20 members), hoever, the Committee showed a solid retentionist majority and the death penalty was retained in the Code.

Filip Filipović

1921 A provisional parliament, charged with passing a Constitution for the newly created Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (Yugoslavia) held a protracted debate on the issue of capital punishment. Total abolition was proposed by the Communist Party, led by Filip Filipović (1878–1938), which was then the third strongest party in the parliament with 58 deputies. It was supported by two other big parties from the left – the Republicans and the Social Democrats – as well as by some smaller parties and individuals, mostly from Slovenia and Croatia. Those who spoke against capital punishment in the debate included: Pavle Pavlović (1888–1971), Živko Jovanović (1888–1923), Jovan Đonović (1883–1962), Etbin Kristan (1867–1953), Nedeljko Divac (1883–1964), Matko Laginja (1852–1930). Their efforts came to nothing, as the parliamentary majority opted for the death penalty.

1926 Women's organizations in Yugoslavia, headed by the National Women's Union, demanded the abolition of capital punishment „for women as well as for men“.

Metod Dolenc

1927 A legal journal interviewed a number of leading Yugoslav lawyers about capital punishment. Those who were firmly against it included: professors Mihailo Čubinski (* 1871), Metod Dolenc (1875–1941) and Ernest Miler (1866–1928), judge Aleksandar Badaj (1858–1937), as well as practising lawyers Jakov Stefančić, Lujo Bakotić (1867–1941) and Ivo Politeo (1887–1956). Lujo Bakotić had already published a study against capital punishment (Belgrade, 1911).

1931 Miroslav Vojinović, a theologian, published an article arguing that the Eastern Orthodox, unlike the Roman Catholic, Church was adamantly opposed to capital punishment. He claimed that by executing death sentences a society „commits a sin against God, because by killing people it enters into God's exclusive domain“. In reality, however, the Serbian Orthodox Church had never called for the abolition of capital punishment; on the contrary, it held that secular punishments should be in the exclusive jurisdiction of the State and that the Church should not meddle in it.

1958/9 At a congress of Yugoslav lawyers in 1958, restrictions on the use of capital punishment were announced. This was achieved by amendments to the Penal Code the following year: the number of capital offences was substantially reduced; the death penalty for property crimes (introduced in 1944) was abolished; the age limit for being sentenced to death was increased (from 18 to 21); hanging was abolished as an alternative mode of execution.

1963 Participants in a symposium on „Marx and our times“ speak up against capital punishment from the standpoint of Marxist theory and „socialist humanism“. The most prominent opponents of the death penalty were philosophers and sociologists gathered around the Praxis review. Besim Ibrahimpašić submitted a paper calling for the abolition of the death penalty, on the grounds that „no organized power can dispose of human life“. It is untenable to argue that a „society“ has the right to protect itself from crime by executing criminals, because it is conceptually impossible to separate a human individual from a concrete society: the worst criminal is a member of the society as much as any other person, including the judge who sentences him to death. In the same year, a Slovenian journal Perspektive, alleging ethnic and social discrimination, mounted a successful campaign against the death sentence passed on a Bosnian worker who had murdered a Slovenian officer. The last execution in Slovenia had taken place in 1957.

Veljko Komlenović

1965 The public prosecutor in a small town in Vojvodina, Veljko Komlenović (1933–1997), intended to found an association of citizens against the death penalty. Under pressure from his superiors, he soon gave up the idea, but continued to collect materials about capital punishment and, in particular, about the effects of executions on the executioners. Serving as chief of police in Novi Sad for several years, Komlenović interviewed the policemen who had taken part in executions. Later on, as a lawyer in private practice, Komlenović spoke against the death penalty in the media and was always ready to support any abolitionist action.

Veljko Guberina

Filota Fila

1967 Public attention was drawn to several sensational trials of murderers, who were facing death sentences. The public interest was further increased by the two defence counsel, Filota Fila and Veljko Guberina (* 1925). Both called in the media for the abolition of capital punishment and it is thanks to their efforts that a wide public took a serious interest in the problem of the death penalty in the 1960s and 1970s. A TV duel in 1970 between Fila and the then President of the Federal Court, a convinced retentionist, became a major event.

Srdja Popović

1980 On 15 July, Belgrade lawyer Srđa Popović (1937-2013) submitted a petition to the Presidency of the SFR Yugoslavia, asking it to initiate proceedings for the abolition of capital punishment in law. The Presidency never bothered to respond.

1981–1988 On 17 October 1981, eleven citizens founded The Society for the Struggle against the Death Penalty. The eleven were: Dušan Gamser, Veljko Guberina, Ivan Janković, Branislava Jojić, Gordana Kaćanski, Veljko Komlenović, Mirjana Kostić, Milan Marković, Mirjana Obretković, Vesna Pešić and Mirjana Todorović. The authorities refused to register this association, on the grounds that the death penalty was allowed by the Constitution, and therefore to „struggle“ against it would be unconstitutional. To accommodate this objection, in 1986 another group founded Society for Dissemination of Knowledge about the Death Penalty, whose goal it was to „publicly disseminate correct and full information about the death penalty and so influence penal policies“. The authorities turned down their application for registration on the same grounds as before: it is unconstitutional to attempt to influence penal policy. Finally, in 1987 another association for the dissemination of information about capital punishment was started. This time, the stated goal was not to abolish capital punishment or influence any policy. But this too was turned down, on the grounds that such an association would be „opposed to public morals“. Administrative and judicial procedures for the registration of these associations took seven years – 1981 to 1988. Their outcome showed that the communist authorities were not ready to allow any freedom of association of citizens, regardless of their stated aims.

The reaction of the authorities to the abolitionist petitions
caricature
M. Čanak, 1983

1983 Five Slovenian dissidents – Jure Detela, Alenka Puhar, Božidar Slapšak, Marko Uršič and Jaša Zlobec – were the first signatories of a petition asking the Federal Parliament to pass a law on the abolition of the death penalty. The petition was eventually signed by more than 1,000 people, mostly from Slovenia (700) and Serbia (300). Some of those who signed became the key political figures in Serbia at the beginning of the 21st century: Zoran Đinđić, Vojislav Koštunica and Boris Tadić. A parliamentary committee, having considered the petition in 1984, informed the petitioners that “no conditions exist for the abolition of capital punishment”.

1992 On 14 February Johan Drozdek, sentenced to death for the rape and murder of a six years old girl, was executed in Sombor. As we know now, it was the last death sentence to be executed in Serbia and Yugoslavia.
The Constitution of the FR Yugoslavia of 27. April proclaimed that no death sentence can be imposed upon persons convicted of crimes under the federal criminal laws (genocide, war crimes, political and military offences), but the federal units (Serbia and Montenegro) retained the right to prescribe capital punishment for crimes in their jurisdiction (murder and robbery).

21st century

2001 25 October : The death penalty was deleted from the list of punishments in the Penal Code of the FR Yugoslavia and replaced by 40 years imprisonment.

2002 26 February : The death penalty was deleted from the Penal Code of Serbia.

2007 Finally an abolitionist country, Serbia for the first time participated in an international campaign against the death penalty: Cities Against the Death Penalty - cities for life. Belgrade City Assembly and NGO The Centre for Peace and Democracy illuminated a city monument - Čukur česma - on 30 November to mark the occasion.

2012 12 May: Association of citizens "Serbia Against Capital Punishment" was founded in Belgrade.
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